Why Should Cl&p Customers Pay?

Halting the construction of two unneeded wood-burning power plants makes sense. But making utility customers pay $18 million to stop the projects, as the General Assembly just ordered, doesn't.

Lawmakers should have kept clear of the issue. One and maybe both of these overpriced and unwanted projects probably would have died a natural death. Or at least the Department of Public Utility Control could have rewritten the plants' operating permits to have saved electric customers money.

Instead, a sweetheart deal was struck in the just-completed special session, without benefit of public hearing. The agreement will reward a phalanx of lawyers, the investors and the taxpayers of Torrington and Killingly, where the two projects would have been located. The customers of Connecticut Light & Power Co., which would have been forced to purchase power from the two plants, are the victims of this payoff scheme.

Some background:

Almost a decade ago, in response to the nationwide push for alternative sources of energy, Bio-Gen of Torrington Inc. and Killingly Energy Limited Partnership proposed huge wood-burning plants to generate electricity. Oil prices were sky-high. Unreasonable state and federal laws required power companies to buy electricity from alternative producers at the price it would have cost the big utilities to have produced it -- whether they needed the extra electricity or not. The law even requires the large producers to help the alternative companies finance their startup costs.

Today, the cost of building both proposed wood-burners is well over original estimates and both are well behind their proposed construction schedules. The price of oil and the cost of power are down. So is the demand for electricity. The DPUC was re-examining the projects and was considering a hearing for the Torrington proposal.

It's almost inconceivable that either project would find backers in today's environment. Some more recent proposals have, in fact, died on the drawing board.

But rather than let the wood-burner projects expire, the Legislature has bailed out their developers. The $18 million that CL&P has been ordered to pay will enable the companies to recover

their development costs to date. Their investors will realize a profit. The towns will recoup the money they have spent on legal fees.

CL&P's customers shouldn't have to pay for this. The losses should be absorbed by those who had hoped for rewards -- the investors in the two firms and the towns that had expected big tax payments from the plants.

The next Legislature and Congress should rewrite the alternative-energy law so that utility firms are not forced to accept unneeded and overpriced power from alternative producers.

When there is a need for more power again, generating capacity should be added in the most efficient and environmentally sensitive way possible